Samsung Exec Delivers Data With a Warning

Yoon Boo-keun, president of Samsung’s TV division, speaks at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Samsung’s television chief used his pre-Consumer Electronics Show briefing to provide information on sales figures — as well as a warning to journalists not to get the data wrong.

Like many firms, Samsung holds briefings for reporters several weeks ahead of the big convention, but it requires them to not write anything until a certain time during the event itself. This practice, known as a news embargo, is supposed to be a convenience to reporters who have lots of things to cover at the convention.

The president of Samsung’s TV business, Yoon Boo-Keun, had a speaking slot at the convention on Thursday afternoon Las Vegas, early Friday Korea time, and that’s when the company timed the release of the TV sales figures.

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During his briefing with reporters in Seoul a few weeks ago, Mr. Yoon said Samsung sold approximately 45 million TVs last year: 6 million tube-style, 5 million plasma and 34 million liquid-crystal-display (9 million of which use LED backlights).

For 2011, Mr. Yoon says Samsung expects total sales to climb to 48 million, spurred by a big increase in LCD. The expected breakdown is 3 million tube-style, 5 million plasma and 40 million LCDs (22 million with LED).

After giving the figures, Mr. Yoon said he felt reporters had left him “naked” and that they had better get the data right when they wrote stories.

Too often, he said, the wrong data get out. “I will give you a penalty” if that happens, Mr. Yoon said.

Part of that is the company’s fault, however. Samsung is one of the most secretive major tech companies when it comes to its operations and finances. Only last year did it start reporting its results using consolidated figures that made it possible to directly compare it to its competitors in other countries. Its quarterly results announcement fills about three double-spaced pages (while firms like Nokia, Sony and Philips put out 30 pages or more) and typically only has sales figures for cellphones, not TVs or other gadgets.

The result of such secrecy is that reporters grab data wherever they can get it. Just this week, a South Korean news agency, citing an anonymous Samsung official, wrote about the company’s TV sales forecast with data that was different from Mr. Yoon’s.

Mr. Yoon has been prickly with the media in the past. In October, he said he was surprised that KBS-TV, South Korea’s biggest TV network, produced a news report that showed Apple Inc. favorably.

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Samsung Electronics Co.’s Seoul headquarters on Friday, Jan. 7.

“If you are from Korea, please make sure Korean companies are in front,” he told reporters at a trade show in suburban Seoul. “The Korean media also has to be very responsible for the country.”

National cheerleading isn’t confined to Samsung, of course. In June, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs bristled at some questions from reporters during a controversy over reception problems with the then-new iPhone 4.

“Look at everything they’ve created. Would you prefer we’re Korean companies?” Mr. Jobs said. “Do you not like the fact that we’re an American company leading the world right here?”